Category: Uncategorized

Talking about the rebuild’s long-term chances of success

The Athletic’s Corey Pronman examines non-playoff teams to rank 16 rebuilding teams in order of their likelihood of winning a Stanley Cup in the next 10 years.

Pronman includes the Red Wings smack dab in the middle of his rankings, but he isn’t certain whether the Wings’ prospect pool alone can guarantee a return to contending status:

8. Detroit Red Wings

Detroit’s rebuild has been frustratingly slow for fans, but the Red Wings have steadily built one piece at a time in the first round. They aren’t picking in the top 10 as often, but the NHL team hasn’t improved that much. They have a bunch of high-quality prospects, although none who project as true impact types. I see a way for this team to be a consistent playoff contender in time, but there may not be enough elite players to go the distance.

Continued (paywall); it’s very hard to draft superstars if you’re drafting outside the top 10 picks (or top 5, really), so the Wings’ draft lottery luck has not helped the cause…

But absent elite game-changers, the Red Wings need to both make sure that the prospects who do pan out drive play and exceed expectations for the Wings’ “type” of player, and the team needs to get more aggressive in terms of importing star players via free agency and/or trades.

It’s going to be difficult for the Wings to continue amassing superb prospects as they get closer and closer to playoff status, and GM Steve Yzerman just isn’t the type of GM to sacrifice prospects and first-round picks for star players…

But he’s got to become a more aggressive GM as the team naturally finds itself more likely to make the playoffs and/or make deeper playoff runs.

The Wings also obviously need their coaching staff, special teams and supporting cast of players to maximize their performances, and as I’ve been saying over the past couple of days, it’s imperative that, starting with the 2025-2026 team’s training camp, Detroit needs to get its team rowing in the same positive direction at the same time.

I don’t know whether the Wings will win a Stanley Cup in the next 10 years. I hope that they do, but many things must break the right way for the team to do so, from drafting and developing to adding the right free agents, getting great coaching and building a strong cast of support players.

We’ll see. I’m hopeful and optimistic, but this is a hard league to win in, and some luck’s going to have to break the Wings’ way, too.

The plight of the ‘tafgai’

In life and in hockey, I try very hard to be a skeptical person, but to not succumb to cynicism. I think that it’s very important to differentiate between the two, and to try to remain balanced and not become jaded or morose…

But in this case, you’re going to have to label me a cynic, because the Russian player’s complaint that teams won’t let them play “their game” and insist upon turning big, tough players into “tafgai” (a transliteration of “tough guy”) is a tired old plot point by now.

Anyway, former Red Wing Klim Kostin, who’s currently looking for an NHL home, spoke with Sport-Express recently, and Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff reports that Kostin claims that the Red Wings only wanted Kostin to fight during his short tenure with the team:

Continue reading The plight of the ‘tafgai’

Wings prospect Shai Buium speaks with the Hockey News

The Hockey News’s Jake Tye spoke with Red Wings prospect defenseman Shai Buium recently, and Buium told Tye that he’s looking forward to performing well over the course of training camp and the exhibition season, regardless of where he ends up playing:

“I’m always going to training camp thinking in the back of my mind, I want to make it a hard decision for them to send me down to the AHL obviously,” Buium explained “Goals for the season, largely to be the best player on the Griffins, best defenseman on the Griffins, and try to work my way up to the NHL and just keep developing my game so when I get to the NHL I’m ready to go.”

Buium’s confidence in his game is noticeable by his peers as Griffins Assistant Coach Brian Lashoff noted Buium as one of the players to watch for heading into next season. Buium noted that he appreciated his coach’s comments and that to hear things like that from his coach and a former longtime pro defenseman is very flattering but noted there’s “still a lot of work to do.”

Lashoff and Griffins Head Coach Dan Watson noted in previous interviews with The Hockey News that Buium progressed as the season went along with Lashoff explaining that towards the end of the season, he trusted him with “big minutes” in key situations. The 22-year-old defenseman finished with a pair of goals and 23 assists for 25 goals through 67 games played. He described the transition from the NCAA to the AHL as “a little more systematic” and that the talent in the league was evident from the start.

Continue reading Wings prospect Shai Buium speaks with the Hockey News

Depending on depth

Here in Metro Detroit, we’ve mostly been focusing on how the Red Wings’ young players, defense and goaltenders might perform this upcoming season as the keys to Detroit’s success this upcoming season.

Yardbarker’s Alex Wiederspiel suggests that, instead, the Red Wings will need big performances from their veterans–think Andrew Copp, J.T. Compher, James van Riemsdyk, Patrick Kane, Ben Chiarot, Erik Gustafsson, etc.–to succeed:

Detroit Red Wings: Can the depth veterans perform? Detroit hasn’t gotten enough out of veteran forwards Andrew Copp and J.T. Compher. Compher, in particular, got pummeled in the high-danger chance battles. The Wings only had 41.2 percent of the high-danger chances with Compher on ice, according to Natural Stat Trick.

Continued; Larkin, DeBrincat, Raymond, Seider, Edvinsson, they’re all incredibly important parts of the Red Wings’ success, as is a rejuvenated John Gibson and a Cam Talbot facing a more realistic workload for a 38-year-old goaltender…

But if everything has to go right for the Red Wings to make the playoffs, that includes the veterans and “depth guys” and even the in-betweeners (Michael Rasmussen, Elmer Soderblom, Jonatan Berggren, Justin Holl, Travis Hamonic and Jacob Bernard-Docker included) all contributing on a more regular basis.

That’s not how a team works–some players play better than others on a given night–but over the course of the season, all the participants definitely need to row the boat in unison. That’s coach Todd McLellan’s task going into this upcoming season–to get the team going in the right direction, together.Get

Carter Bear will remain a WHL player this upcoming season

We’ve had two articles discussing whether Red Wings prospect and Everett Silvertips forward Carter Bear might be able to skip playing in the WHL this season and jump to the AHL’s Grand Rapids Griffins…

But TSN/The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun reports that the clause in the new CBA which would allow the Red Wings to pick 1 CHL player and have him skip his 19-year-old season in the CHL is not being opened for negotiation just yet:

So Bear, who’s still recovering from that partially torn Achilles tendon, will be plying his trade in Everett until the Silvertips’ WHL season ends.

Gordie Howe’s beginnings took place in Saskatoon

The Saskatoon Star-Phoenix’s Kevin Mitchell wrote a different kind of profile of Red Wings legend Gordie Howe today, discussing Howe’s humble, impoverished beginnings, and his ties to the city of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan:

Gordie Howe’s elbow had not yet met a opponent’s jaw when he entered this world, almost unnoticed, on the threshold of the Great Depression.

He was born in 1928 near Floral, a speck of dust on the map, a quiet little stopping point on the way to bigger locales.

The family moved to Saskatoon a few days after Howe’s arrival. He grew up poor; didn’t have much of anything, save for skates and a hockey stick. He was hungry, sometimes lived on oatmeal and powdered milk, and had trouble reading because he was dyslexic.

Howe repeated third grade, and kids called him “Doughhead.” He delivered groceries to make a bit of money, and collected gopher tails, selling them for a cent apiece. He poured concrete sidewalks alongside his father when his body got stronger.

Howe is our Hometown Hero in this summer’s How Canada Wins series — not just because of the hockey icon he became, but because of the circumstances that got him there, and a final gesture.

It’s worth noting that Howe’s first media mention came in 1938, when he placed second out of 10 entries in Grade 3 paper cutting at the Saskatoon Exhibition. Millions of words have been written about him since, none of them about paper cutting.

But you can add that little scrap of newsprint to the many ways Howe scattered himself across Saskatoon.

Continued at extended length…

Tweet of note: Lucas Raymond speaks with SiriusXM Radio about the Red Wings’ leadership group (and coach)

Yesterday, the NHL on SiriusXM Radio posted a clip of Moritz Seider speaking with The Fourth Period’s David Pagnotta and Dennis Bernstein about his iron man streak, and today, there’s a snippet of a longer interview with Lucas Raymond (only available if you have SiriusXM radio) in which Raymond discusses the Red Wings’ leadership group, and specifically, Dylan Larkin, Patrick Kane and spending half-a-season under coach Todd McLellan:

Talking about Carter Bear possibly playing in the AHL this season (again)

Pro Hockey Rumors’ Josh Erickson believes that, should the NHL, NHLPA and CHL agree on an “AHL exemption” for one player per season, it’s possible that Carter Bear may skate in the Detroit Red Wings’ system this season:

Yesterday, PuckPedia reported that certain aspects of this summer’s CBA extension will take effect for the upcoming 2025-26 campaign instead of the 2026-27 season as was initially expected. Among those items is a proposed exception to the current transfer agreement between the NHL and CHL, Canada’s top association of junior leagues, that would allow teams to loan one 19-year-old player drafted from that league to their AHL affiliate without permission from the player’s CHL club. Under current rules, teams must wait until a player’s age-20 season to send them to the AHL full-time – until then, it’s either the NHL or CHL.

It’s not yet clear whether that rule will actually be implemented this season. While the league will make an aggressive push for it to happen, PuckPedia added that the CHL hasn’t yet signed off on the change and that serious negotiations haven’t started yet.

If the league does manage to strike an agreement with the CHL to allow the exception to happen, though, it’s a good time to take a look at some potential candidates who could test the waters. This isn’t an exhaustive list of every player who’s eligible for the rule, rather, a deep dive into which names might actually make sense to receive the early start to their pro careers.

Here’s his take on Bear’s chances of skating for the Grand Rapids Griffins this upcoming season:

Detroit Red Wings: Carter Bear

Bear is the only player from the 2025 draft class on this list, and that has to do with the difference between how the NHL defines draft eligibility and how the CHL defines a player’s age for a given season. The NHL’s draft cutoff is September 15, while the CHL’s age cutoff is January 1. Since Bear has a November 2005 birthday, he was a couple of months too young to be eligible for the 2024 NHL draft, but he has already been credited with his age-18 season in the CHL’s eyes. The winger was the No. 13 overall selection by Detroit and likely could have gone a few spots higher if not for some concern about a partial Achilles laceration that ended his season in March. He managed 82 points in only 56 games for the WHL’s Everett Silvertips before that happened, though, and his 6’0″, 180-lb frame should help an early AHL transition along.

Continued; I know that Bear has signed his entry-level deal, and whether it’s Erickson or the Hockey News’s Jake Tye, who was first on this story line…

I’m going to have to respectfully disagree here. I don’t see the Red Wings rushing a 6,” 179-pound youngster coming off a partially torn Achilles tendon (and Bear hasn’t taken part in Everett’s training camp as of yet) to the AHL for the sake of playing him in the AHL. At this point, I really believe that Bear needs one more year in the WHL, where he can play against players in his same age range and dominate in the league.

This is all hypothetical to begin with, but I just don’t see it happening.

Prospect round-up: Nikita Tyurin scores a goal in his 25-26 season debut

The Detroit Red Wings prospects’ 2025-2026 regular season got underway today as Nikita Tyurin’s MHK Spartak battled SKA-1946 in the Russian MHL, the Russian equivalent of a major junior league.

Tyurin, who gave an English-language interview to the MHL’s website a couple of days ago, scored the 5-1 goal in MHK Sprtak’s 7-3 win over SKA-1946. My Russian isn’t very good, but the stat sheet indicates that Tyurin scored and blocked 2 shots.

Per the indispensable Red Wings Prospects on Twitter:

It’s far too early to guess whether Tyurin will work his way up the ranks to Spartak’s VHL team (the Russian equivalent of the AHL) or KHL team, but at the major junior level, he posted 4 goals and 16 assists for 20 points in 50 games last season…And he didn’t turn 18 years old until July 2nd.

Tyurin isn’t overly big at 6′ and 174 pounds, but the 140th overall pick in the 2025 NHL Draft has some time to develop into a bigger and stronger player.

Daily Faceoff offers a Red Wings season preview

Daily Faceoff’s Anthony Trudeau has posted an in-depth 2025-2026 season preview of the Detroit Red Wings, with a projected lineup, 2024-2025 season recap, analysis of the team’s offense, defense, goaltending and coaching, a mention of the team’s potential rookies, and the following:

BURNING QUESTIONS

1. Is help on the way? Yzerman won’t dip into his draft and prospect assets unless he’s confident such a move will make the Wings an upper-echelon contender. His draft-centric “Yzerplan” was always going to take a little patience, but even captain Dylan Larkin has become frustrated by Yzerman’s unwillingness to help out the roster in the short term. For a team with more talented young players than there are lineup slots, would it be the worst idea to speed things up just a bit? The Red Wings will never win enough to “earn” a deadline buy-in from Yzerman while Seider and Edvinsson are stuck dragging around a blueline full of Yzerman’s free agency mistakes. 

2. Are Raymond and Seider Cup-winning players? The Red Wings might be moving forward at the speed of a dreadnought, but they have improved. That means the bulk of Yzerman’s most high-leverage draft selections have already been made. There’s no question he’s an excellent amateur scout, but does it rattle some nerves in Hockeytown that Raymond and Seider are so far ahead of every other young player in the organization save, perhaps, for Edvinsson? Both are great young players, but they could stand to take another jump if they’re to be the principal stars of the Red Wings’ next winner. 

3. Anyone have a playoff spot? It couldn’t have felt good for the Wings to watch the Montreal Canadiens, whose rebuild started around five seasons later than theirs, snag the last Wild Card. Montreal’s core players are younger than Larkin and DeBrincat (if not Seider and Raymond), and the team has shown a willingness to add name-brand talent like Noah Dobson and Patrik Laine to expedite their growth. The Ottawa Senators’ rebuild ran concurrently with Detroit’s for a while, but they’re also pulling away now that they have stable leadership in place; Ottawa finished seventh in the East, just a point adrift of the Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers. With Montreal and Ottawa on the rise, and Florida and Tampa Bay entrenched in the top three, where exactly is Detroit supposed to sneak into the postseason in a crowded Atlantic Division? 

PREDICTION

The Red Wings have reasons for optimism. Their forward group could end up outkicking expectations, especially if Kasper thrives at 2C. McLellan was the best, most proven coach on the market when Yzerman hired him. The same could be said of Gibson among the goalies available this summer. Still, it’s tough to pick a Detroit team that’s waiting on at least one more proven NHL defenseman ahead of clubs that already look fairly complete on paper. Yzerman could still swoop in for Rasmus Andersson or Mario Ferraro before Christmas, but it would be out of character. If he doesn’t, the Red Wings will end up with another ~90-point finish as the drought drags on.

Continued at length; I truly believe in McLellan’s abilities as a coach over the course of his first full season behind the bench, I fully believe that Gibson can rebound from a rough couple of seasons, and I desperately hope that the Red Wings will add a top-four defenseman and/or a top-six forward over the course of the 2025-2026 regular season, leading up to the 2026 trade deadline…

But I do feel that the odds are stacked against the Wings, both in terms of the current roster’s ability to push through the Senators and Canadiens to earn a Wild Card spot, and in terms of the “experts” suggesting that there’s no way in hell that the Wings can make the playoff cut.

We shall see. I’m optimistic but trying to be realistic as well.